An early talkie from Warner Brothers. It's a relic
Chicago
gangster
flick from the 1930s that just doesn't click. Lew
Ayres is miscast as
ruthless
gang leader Louie Ricarno. The dialogue was risible,
the story was
weak,
and the acting was misplaced. The film leaves one with
the acceptable
social
message: crime does not pay. This comes after an
hour's worth of
showing
that money can buy everything and that crime does pay.

Youthful gangster Louie Tommy guns to death a dirty
rat
gangster
on the steps of his brownstone, as he hides his gun in
a violin case.
Louie
then organizes the city gangsters fighting amongst
themselves over
Chicago
beer territory, and becomes the overall boss who will
make sure no
dirty
business will occur.

Louie makes a quick million bucks, sends his
innocent kid
brother
Jackie (Leon Janney) to an elite military school, and
decides that he
has
had enough of the rackets and surprises his colleagues
by turning over
the leadership to his second in command Mileaway
(James Cagney in his
second
film role) and he retires to Florida after marrying
his moll Doris
(Dorothy
Mathews). What he doesn't know is that Doris and
Mileaway are lovers.

In retirement Louie writes his autobiography about
how a
gangster
changed and became a model citizen, as he swears he
won't return as
crime
boss even though the gangs have resumed their warfare
without his
strong
leadership. But Louie is lured back to Chicago when
two gangsters try
to
kidnap Jackie and when the kid eludes them he's run
over by a truck and
killed.

The revenge Louie gets on the two gangsters causes
his own
demise.
His nemesis, Rocco, sets a trap and guns him down.
Police Captain Pat
O'
Grady (Robert Elliott), who had a soft spot in his
heart for the hood,
warned him that he can't get away with crime forever.

The film might have been innovative during its time,
setting the
standard for many of the gangster clichés, but
it is now
hopelessly
outdated.